Overview

CCYHA partners with the American Special Hockey Association (ASHA) and USA Hockey to provide children and adults who have developmental disabilities with the opportunity to play ice hockey in an environment adapted to each athlete's level of physical and mental ability. 

CCYHA is the only program in Central Ohio to offer this type of program.

Contact   or if you are interested in contacting someone regarding participation in the Special Needs Hockey Program.

 

Also, for the Special Needs Hockey Team Home Page select the 'All Team Pages' tab at the top of the screen then select 'Special Hockey' under the LEAGUE drop down
 

Mission

The mission of Special Hockey is to give people with physical and Developmental Disabilities the chance to play the sport of Ice Hockey in an environment which is adapted to the level of ability which the athletes are able to participate.  Special Hockey exists for the enrichment of the athlete with a developmental disability.

 

In addition to physical hockey skills, the program emphasizes the development of desirable individual characteristics such as dependability, self-reliance, concentration, willingness to share and personal accountability. The game of hockey is used by Special Hockey to develop within each player the characteristics that will help the player to be more successful both inside and outside a hockey environment.

 

 

The program is open to any player, male or female, who is physically able to play, but would be unable to participate in any other organized program due to his or her developmental disability. Participants do not need to know how to skate.

Registration/Season Length:

Our Season starts/registration opens the end of August/beginning of September. We do ask, unless you are a returning family, that you come see at least once practice before registering to make sure the program is a good fit for your athlete, at which point we will discuss registration/cost further.

The season runs through late May/early June, normally ending with the SHI tournament the last week of April at a different host city each year, which chosen by SHI from the active teams cities in their roster.


Team Manager/Registration Contacts:


Phone: 419.310.2467


Phone: 614.488.0569


History:

Grandravine, Ontario, 1970…Pat Flick notices a boy, who is developmentally disabled, coming to the rink to watch his brother play and finds inspiration…with two players and some ice from the Grandravine Athletic Association, special hockey was born!!!
 
Special hockey took a while to be discovered by us here in the U.S, but it finally found its way in 1994, when Tony Sansone founded the first team in St. Louis, Mo. Since that time, special hockey has grown rapidly around the globe and here in our own back yard.
 
Shortly after founding the team in St. Louis, in 1996, Tony Sansone and Pat Flick were chosen to lead SHI (Special Hockey International) as the governing body, supporting international competition for special athletes and things took off from there.
 
Just a couple short years after that, in 2000, special hockey had expanded so rapidly here in the United States that Mike Hickey founded ASHA to help support the growing interest and by 2007, Mike and Kelly Good partnered with ASHA and the CCYHA to found the team that is currently in place today.
 
From humble beginnings in Grandravine, through the hard work of many people, the partnerships between SHI, ASHA, CCYHA, and commonly minded people continue to provide many opportunities for athletes with developmental disabilities to play ice hockey in an environment adapted to each athlete's level of physical and mental ability.  Along with your CCYHA Blue Jackets, there are currently 50+ teams world-wide being governed by SHI and 20+ of those teams are here in the US, being coordinated by ASHA.

 

(The National Governing Body for ice hockey in the United States)

ASHA:  http://www.americanspecialhockey.org/ 

(American Governing Body for Special Needs Hockey)
 

SHI: http://www.specialhockeyinternational.org/

(International Governing Body for Special Needs Hockey):